Joel
Osteen, whose has
become an iconic image of the megachurch movement in America, turned 50 years
old two days ago.
Since 1999,
Osteen has been the senior pastor of the church that was founded by his father, Lakewood
Church in Houston. The church is as big as an arena. Its services draw
more than 43,000 guests per week, and its weekly telecasts reach an estimated 7
million worldwide.
Through his
telecasts and his books and his online presence, he has branded himself more
thoroughly than any American preacher of his generation.
He smiles.
He smiles when he preaches, and he smiles when he speaks in interviews. He
smiles when he is listening to someone else speak. We think, but we are not
sure, that he smiles when he eats. Somewhere there has got to be a photograph
of him when he is not smiling, but we haven’t found it yet.
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